As a truly green option for today s homes, cork flooring has a variety of benefits. Excellent in every room of your home from the bath to the kitchen and living area, a cork floor will deliver comfort and durability.

Still skeptical? Cork floors have been around for centuries and can be found today in buildings like the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Resilient and always attractive, cork floors are an ideal and environmentally responsible choice to make for flooring in your home.

Cork Flooring Delivers 4 Important Benefits

1) Comfortable and Quiet Underfoot

The reason why carpet is still so popular is the cushion and comfort it offers. Cork will deliver that same feeling of softness. Because of the air pockets that occur naturally within this material, cork flooring has a give and will flex when walked on like a cushion. This type of shock absorption is especially useful in work areas like the kitchen where you are standing for a decent length of time.

Cork s natural texture is also soft and warm for bare feet. Due to the cellular structure, cork acts as a very effective insulator and also absorbs the sound of footsteps and other noise. Cork floor is naturally resistant to mold and insects thanks to suberin, a waxy substance naturally found in the material.

2) Eco-friendly In More Ways Than One

As the world strives to reduce damage done to our planet and works to protect our natural resources, green building materials are becoming the mainstay. Cork flooring can definitely be classified as green and in a variety of ways. Most cork flooring is manufactured using spent cork bottle stoppers that are ground up and formed into tiles or sheets for flooring. Only a minimal amount of adhesives are used and the material is bonded with high pressure, making it stronger than the bulletin boards we might picture when thinking of cork.

Besides this green method of manufacturing, cork is harvested in an environmentally friendly way as well. Unlike other timber that must be cut down for harvest, the value of the cork tree is found in its bark. The tree must be kept alive and healthy in order to produce the usable material, resulting in large areas of southern Europe and northern Africa that are covered in thriving cork tree farms.

3) Easy to Clean

Cork flooring compares to the warmth and comfort of carpet, but is much easier to clean. Technically hard surface flooring, cork can be swept or vacuumed easily. Any water or spills that end up on the cork floor should be wiped up as soon as you can. Leave the mop and bucket for vinyl floor. Treat your cork flooring much like hardwood, but enjoy the benefits of its soft and comfortable texture.

4) Simple DIY Installation

Cork flooring is becoming a popular choice, despite falling out of favor when low maintenance vinyl floors were introduced. Nowadays you can find cork in sheets designed to be rolled out and used as underlayment for acoustic and insulating purposes. Cork floor also comes in parquet tiles that are glued to your subfloor or planks that are installed with a floating method.

All of these styles are fairly easy to install and go in quickly. Sealing the cork floor for added moisture resistance is as simple as rolling two or three coats of polyurethane onto the flooring.

For your new home construction or during a renovation, consider the benefits of cork flooring. Besides these four features, cork is also extremely durable, has an unmatched natural beauty and is reasonably priced. Invest in the strength and good looks of natural cork flooring.

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